Burnout & Position Changes – Message from Tim

A few weeks ago, some may have seen a post on Facebook from me stating that I was leaving TH3D. However, after taking some time to recharge, relax, and discuss with the rest of the team, I will still be working at TH3D, albeit in a much different capacity. While I consider myself a pretty intelligent person, I can be very “dumb” when dealing with people at times.

Over the last three years, I have been working upwards of 80-90 hours a week with almost no breaks. I thought that being continuously working and connected with the community would be great for the company, but it ended up being my downfall. I am not writing this to excuse anything I have done, but I am writing this to own my mistakes and improve. Burnout is something many people warned me of, and I ignorantly ignored it. I thought that I could keep up with burning the candle at both ends and dealing with many stressful situations with no repercussions, but I was wrong.

If you are someone I came off to as harsh or rude, I apologize for that regardless of who was right or wrong in the situation. I should have always been the bigger person, regardless of the problem. I hope that, in time, those of you whom I upset can give me a second chance to make a good impression. My team is much better at handling people than I am, so my team is taking over that part of the company when it comes to customers. I am going to keep this posting here shorter, but I may write a more in-depth posting on my personal blog online if you follow it.

Here is what is happening to make actual changes for myself and TH3D. 

Development Work

The goal is to remove as many distractions and temptations that can be negative from my responsibilities here so I can focus on what I do well. I have always done better on the backend of things, and I am not good at dealing with customers (especially the upset ones). I will be using my time to focus on product and firmware development here. I enjoy doing firmware and product work.

Facebook Groups

I am no longer going to be spending time or participating in Facebook Groups for 3D printing. I did spend a fair amount of time helping people in the groups, but it also allowed for many negative distractions and interactions. The only posts you will see are those posted from our marketing platform in a few groups, but I will not be interacting with them. Other staff members at TH3D are active in the groups and will be there to help people out as well as customers.

Twitter

Our Twitter account is also being managed by others here as that was a time consuming as well. Again, the only posts you will see from me are those posted from our marketing platform. At our account, any replies to posts or tweets come into our ticketing system for the other team members to handle.

Tickets

Lastly, when it comes to direct customer interaction, I am no longer involved in the handling of any support tickets that are received. If one of my staff members needs assistance with a ticket, they will contact me directly for help and then relay the information to the customer.

YouTube

YouTube will be the only place where I will be interacting directly with the community and customers. YouTube is one of the few places and aspects of the business that is very enjoyable to be doing for me. If people are trying to be intentionally hostile on our channel, they will be removed instead of engaging with it.

In summary, I am pulling back from many of the direct interactions with customers and the community so I can focus on TH3D and be able to take some personal time. Hopefully, you all will see that manifesting itself in more positive interactions, better customer service, and innovations from TH3D. I appreciate all of you that have stuck by myself and TH3D throughout the years. I hope you are all doing well and if you are feeling burned out take some time to recharge. 

Sincerely,
Tim Hoogland